The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of hybrid Echinacea and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, ‘Burgundy Fireworks’. ‘Burgundy Fireworks’ represents a new purple coneflower, an herbaceous perennial grown for landscape use.
The new cultivar arose from an ongoing breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Glencoe, Ill. The breeding line was initiated in 1996 with the intent of developing a series of interspecific Echinacea hybrids from the species E. purpurea, E. laevigata, E. tennesseensis, and E. paradoxa. The overall objective was to develop previously unknown combinations of traits from these parents, including ornamental attributes such as unique ray floret colors, fragrance, plant bushiness, improved disease resistance, hardiness, and in-ground adaptability.
In 1996, the following four controlled crosses were made: 1) Echinacea laevigata hybrid×E. purpurea (unnamed plants), 2) Echinacea tennesseensis×E. laevigata hybrid (unnamed plants), 3) Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ (not patented)×E. tennesseensis (unnamed plant), and 4) Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’×E. purpurea ‘Bravado’ (not patented). In 1998, controlled crosses were made between the above lines 1 and 2, and between 3 and 4, and 100 and 63 plants were grown out from the two crosses, respectively. In 2000, two, plants were selected from the 1998 crosses that exhibited fused ray flowers, which had not been previously observed in this breeding program, nor reported in the literature for Echinacea breeding to the Inventor's knowledge. These two plants were crossed in 2000 with controlled crosses made in both directions (e.g. reciprocal cross). In 2002, six plants were selected from the reciprocal crosses made in 2000 that exhibited fused ray flowers and dark flower stems. These six plants were bulk-pollinated (e.g. pollen collected from all six plants, then hand-pollinated back on all six plants) under controlled conditions in 2002. In 2005, ‘Burgundy Fireworks’ was selected as a single unique plant from amongst the 100 seedlings that resulted from the 2002 crosses with the exact parent plants unknown.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by in vitro propagation of leaf petiole explants in July of 2007 by the inventor in Glencoe, Ill. and asexual propagation by in vitro propagation has shown that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.